Agriculture of Scotland. 



81 



of rents ; and, tlie average rate of prices still going- on to increase^ 

 we accordingly find tliat a further improvement took place in the 

 value of land during the period now under review. Indeed 

 nothing tends so much to show the steady advance which at this 

 time marked the progress of agriculture in Scotland as the in- 

 creased rental of the country since the close of the American 

 war. At that period it could not have amounted to more than 

 1,500,000/. In 1795, it is believed to have exceeded 2,000,000/. 



Live- Stock. — The more frequent recurrence of artificial grasses 

 in the rotation of crops, and the greater breadth now devoted to 

 turnips, caused a proportional increase in the quantity of live stock, 

 to which the still further rise in the price of butcher's meat, of 

 course, contributed. Hence, also, increased attention came to be 

 given to the improvement m the form and size of both cattle and 

 sheep ; and the more frequent application of the Dishley or New 

 Leicester ram, and of the Teeswater bull, was be2:inning to exhibit 

 its effects in the somewhat improved quality of stock shown at the 

 country markets. Still, however, not many entire flocks of the 

 pure Leicester sheep were to be found at this time throughout 

 Scotland ; and the high price, in many cases, given for the hire of 

 Bakewell and Culley's tups, as well as for Colling's bulls, by a few 

 Scotch agriculturists, was rather to improve the native breeds of 

 the country than with any ambition to generate a pure stock, 

 M'hich was still generally considered at this time unsuitable to 

 the climate of Scotland. 



But we hasten to go on to the next period as infinitely more 

 marked and conspicuous in the bright career of Scotch agricul- 

 ture. The epoch from 1795 to 1814 exhibits, indeed, an era un- 

 exampled in the history of improvement in any other country. 

 Many favourable circumstances operated to produce this result, 

 and that these events, equally applicable to the sister kingdom, did 

 not produce so striking an effect in England, can be accounted for 

 in part from the circumstance that she previously occupied a more 

 elevated position in the scale of improvement. But the want of 

 leases there, perhaps, more than any other cause, contributed to 

 her having been outstripped in this laudable struggle. 



Great Britain was now engao-ed in the heat of the war occa- 

 sioned by the French Revolution ; and, without going into the ab^ 

 stract question as to the general effects of war upon prices, there 

 is no doubt that the peculiar character of that contest tended mate- 

 rially to affect the price of agricultural produce, both in this coun- 

 try and throughout Europe. The extensive military operations 

 carried on over a great part of the Continent could not fail to in • 

 terfere seriously with the productiveness of those countries where 

 such distractions existed ; while the obstructions to commercial in- 



VOL. I. G 



